Head Above Water
by BlackDarknessFanfics
Summary: After Keith tragically lose his home and family in a tragic event, he seeks shelter close to human territory. Too weak to look for what remains of his past, and too scared to start a new life on his own, he finds himself conflicted when he meets a little fluffy creature. A creature who might have brought more for Keith than silly meows and misguided communication. (MERMAID AU)
1. Chapter 1: The Incident

The soft calming sound of waves hitting the beach, washing up tiny jellyfish and every now and then some wooden boards, or trash. Keith was lying on his stomach, on a rock close to the abandoned side of the beach. Nobody came there. Too many crabs, and rocks to sunbath there. The water, however, was fine. By now, that side of the beach had become Keith's place of peace. Hidden behind two large rocks, was a somewhat flat rock, just big enough for Keith's body to lay, and his tail to be in the water. Keith gradually opened his eyes and glanced out on the open waters. In the far distance, he could see a ship. Every ship was filled with interesting humans and funny things. However, Keith had no interest in them anymore. He had not had any interest in anything for roughly 4 months now. Not since then.

He gently let his tail flop up and down in the water a few times, to keep it from drying out. His fins were slightly damaged, even torn here and there which was slightly painful, but they were getting better every day. The red colour of his tail was no longer as red as it could have been. Due to the time spent in the sun, the colour was slowly fading day by day. The bruises and marks on his skin were also fading day by day. Slowly but surely. The once bloody and painful bite marks and claw marks were now transparent bruises on his otherwise pale skin. The fracture he had on the corner of his lips was still very visible. Every now and then he would touch it, scratch it even. It never had enough peace to heal, so it was still a mess. He was a mess. His skin and his tail was a mess. His body and mind was a rotting dying mess day by day. Keith gently closed his eyes and started humming quietly to himself. The lullaby his mother had hummed when he was a child. He still had vivid flashes from that day. The faithful day his world was turned upside down.

It happened roughly 4 months ago. His life had been fine. Keith had always been a loner by nature, but he lived alongside the rest of the mermaids and mermen. Females and males of all shapes, sizes and colours. None as red as Keith though. He arrived alone with his mother, so no one really knew where Keith had gotten his red colours from. He never played with anyone, nor spoke much to anyone unless required. Few tried to get close to him but gave up quick. However, he felt home there. He had lived there since he was very small. It's never easy to flee what you call home. But his mother had told him to swim as fast as he could, as far away as possible. He did as told, but had not seen or heard from her since. The day the sharks attacked. Grey, vicious with desire for chaos and destruction, and a taste for blood no matter who it came from. Nobody had seen the attack coming. Some kids had told the king that they had seen sharks lurk around, but they were not taken seriously. Everyone probably regretted not taking them seriously now. If anyone was even still alive. The sharks tore up everything. It was easy since it was not just one or two sharks. They did move in herds. Huge flocks of big sharks, in need of food. It was simply bad luck that the mermaids were in their path. They swam in, using their tails to destroy the statues and houses mermaids had spent generations building. It was the first time Keith had seen how a kid could fit perfectly into a sharks mouth. The first time he had seen so much blood in the otherwise so clear water. Pieces of mermaid tails, skin, fingers, hair, flowing around in the water that had been perfectly clear only moments earlier. Everywhere he looked there were mermaids crying, trying to swim away. Till this day, Keith knew there were some out there who got away just like him. There was no way he could be the only one to escape the attack.

His mother had protected him till her own tail got caught in the teeth of a grey shark with black spots. Keith met the shark's eyes at that moment. It scared Keith, despite him not being a little kid anymore. He was 18, yet got so scared. He watched as his own mother cried in pain, through tears in her eyes, yelling at him to swim as far away as possible. He was frozen till her screams mixed in with other screams, and he finally swam away. He swam as fast as his tail could carry him. As far as his energy could take him. It must have been the adrenaline because he got pretty far away. He was not left unharmed though. He was bruised, wounded, and he left a trail of his blood. So he decided to stay on the shallow water, to make sure the sharks could not follow him. Which led him to where he was now. He had not been out on open waters since. He kept close to the beach at all times. The only time he went slightly further out was to get food. And even then, he would be careful and stay out of plain sight. That was the day Keith lost everything. His mother. His friends. His home. Even parts of himself. There was no way he could have done anything. But he watched as his mother cut the shark with her knife, fighting it. Thinking back at it now, Keith felt bad for fleeing instead of helping. Could he have done something? Or was this the best choice? Keith did not know, but he was growing weaker day by day. He wanted to go back but was too scared to. His mother had been so strong, so why was he not? Was she alive? Was she looking for him? What about his friends? Shiro? the rest of the mermaids?

A rumble from Keith's stomach brought him back from the flashes of his past. He was hungry again. 'Again' was an understatement. He ate too little as it was. His ribcage was starting to show. His body had surely gone into starvation mode long ago. Keith slowly sat up and ran his hand through his black hair. His blue eyes gazed over the water, before peaking by the rock that covered him. He always made sure nobody saw him. Sharks were one thing, but humans were another. Keith had heard tales of how ruthless humans could be. Still, Keith felt comfort close to their beaches. Safe almost. He was still more terrified of sharks than humans. So far the humans had kept away. Nobody came to this side of the beach, and surely they would not randomly look for anything by the rocks. But sharks would never come so close to human territory. As far as Keith was concerned, the sharks were more afraid of humans than he was. Or perhaps the other way around? Or maybe, sharks just did not go into such shallow waters. They would surely get stuck.

Keith's eyes suddenly landed on something white on the beach sand. From the distance, it was impossible to see what it was exactly, but it looked much like a box. A white box. In the middle of the sand. Keith stared at it for a while before his eyes glanced around on the beach, the cliffs and the rocks. Nobody was around. However, this white object did not look like anything that had been washed up from the sea. It was too far in, and to perfectly placed. Every thought told Keith it was a trap. But Keith's curiosity was almost overwhelming. He let himself slip into the water. Carefully as to not hurt his body anymore. He swam closer to the beach, with only half of his face peeking above the water surface. His eyes darted around him to make sure he was really alone. He was on guard. As vigilante as ever. As he drifted closer to the beach, the water around him started disappearing. The box was a little further from where the waves flowed back into the sea. But close enough for Keith's tail to still touch the water. He carefully peeked into the white box but pulled back quickly as the content inside made a sound. Whatever was inside the white box was moving, and making sounds. Keith was considering going back to the water, till a pair of furry ears, two blue eyes and little nose peeked over the top of the box, with a tiny meow. Keith's eyes went wide. His face peeked closer before he gently reached his hand in and touched the tiny creature's nose. He pulled his hand away quickly as the creature let out what sounded like a sneeze. Keith had never seen anything like this creature. He had witnessed a slightly bigger creature bark out to him once before a human called out to it. But that was 2 months ago. This creature was smaller, and it looked more fragile. The creature inside the box moved slightly, clearly trying to escape the white box prison. Keith's eyes narrowed slightly as his hand waved down the box to the side, and the creature jumped out of it.

This creature was special. It had ocean deep blue eyes and black fur with white spots. Some of the spots looked very pale turquoise rather than white. Its nose was pink, and so were the little pillows on its paws. Keith had never seen anything like it. The creature, however, was fascinated by Keith. It went closer to Keith's face and placed it's two front paws on each of Keith's cheeks, while it vigorously sniffed at him. Keith watched the creature carefully, almost mesmerized by it. It then stepped down and started walking around Keith. It sniffed Keith's skin and tail. Even paid special attention to every little wound it found on Keith's skin and tail. It then jumped onto Keith's back, with no warning.

"H-Hey!" Keith wiggled slightly to get the creature off, but the creature refused to jump down again, and shamelessly continued to sniff Keith's skin, up to his hair. As the creature came up closer to Keith's face, it let out yet another tiny miaow.

"I, I don't understand you, sorry" Keith muttered as he sat up and picked the creature up in his two hands. Its eyes followed Keith, and it looked rather happy for someone who had just been picked up into the air.

"What are you?" Keith questioned as he carefully studied the creature.

"Miaow" The creature answered.

"Is, Is that your name?" He looked into the creature's eyes.

"Miaow. Mioooow!" The cat answered once again. Keith then put the creature down on the sand again. He studied the creature as it jumped happily around on the sand, and played with the waves that gently brushed onto the sand. The creature looked genuinely happy to be there and alive.

Keith looked around, but there were still no traces of any humans nor bigger creatures. He still had no clue why he was still there. He was hungry and needed food. He slowly pushed himself out towards the water, but stopped once he watched the creature try to follow. He had never seen a creature like that in the water, so surely it did not belong out at sea. Keith let his tail submerge into the water before turning to look at the creature. It was so small, and water quickly covered its four feet, and it stopped to look at Keith. Keith frowned slightly.

"Stay there. You'll probably drown" Keith sighed. He watched as the creature jumped out of the water and sat down on dry sand. It was simply watching Keith, as Keith slowly made his way out into deeper water again. He ducked into the water and started searching for food. He found some seaweed, along with some underwater berries. He would try to catch a fish, but he had nothing to make a net, nor any weapon. So up till now, his diet had consisted of seaweed, berries, and now and then small fish that were easy to catch. He returned to the surface again. His attention was quickly caught to the sounds from the shore.

Keith swam up to his peaceful rocks. The creature was still by the white box, but it was not alone anymore. There were so many confusing things happening on shore now. A metal bucket. The little creature. And a human. The metal bucket was sitting beside the white box. The little creature was carelessly jumping around the human. The human boy had a smile as he played with the creature. What if the creature was dangerous? Perhaps it was not. It did, however, have teeth and claws. But it looked happy to see the human boy. The human boy had brown hair, way shorter than Keith. His skin was also way tanner than Keith's skin. He had an army green jacket wrapped around his waist, blue shorts, and a grey t-shirt on. He looked really happy as he played around with the tiny creature. Keith's eyes caught a crab escaping the metal bucket while the boy was distracted. Keith leaned his head towards the rock as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. The boy and the tiny creature looked happy. Perhaps they knew how to communicate. God knows Keith had no idea what the tiny creature was saying.

It did not take long for the creature to notice Keith, and it immediately started meowing out to him. Keith's eyes went wide, and the human boy looked up. Keith quickly ducked under the water, to remain unseen.

"What's up, gatita?" the boy looked out in the direction the creature was moving at. Keith was praying that the human had not seen him, despite the unwanted attention the creature had brought upon him. Keith slowly made his way back out into deeper water, away from the shore. At least till the human was no longer there. He let himself sink to the bottom of the water, falling softly onto a bed of seaweed. He looked tiredly up at the fish that swam by above him. He needed actual food soon unless he really wanted to die young. His eyes closed slowly as he drifted into a more relaxed state of mind. The water was calming at the moment. No disturbance besides the occasional speedy fish, zooming by faster than the rest. It did not take long for Keith to fall into a light slumber.


	2. Chapter 2: Truly Magical

Lance Mcclain. An average Cuban boy. The beautiful beaches, beautiful people, and the language of romance and mystery. Lance was a package of everything and nothing at the same time. A playboy with no playtoy. A single tango, dancing out towards beaches, towards the sea. Lance was a boy mesmerized by the wonders of the sea, despite loving where he was. He would not leave Cuba for anything, but he was dreaming of the sea. To see what lies beyond the horizon line. But for now, he was a simple Cuban boy. A Cuban boy whose mother had asked him to go collect crabs at the beach. His mother was a great cook and could make a good dish with crabs. She needed them first though. There was absolutely nothing Lance would not do for his family. He loved them and protected them. His parents. His siblings. Everyone. They meant everything to him.

Reaching the beach, Lance started picking up crabs and putting them in the metal bucket he had brought with him. It was a chore, but one he did not mind. He was close to the water, and the beach sometimes had weird stuff washed up from the sea. He shook the bucket every now and then to prevent the crabs from climbing out. They were smart enough to stack on top of each other to escape. They sacrificed each other so that one or two could escape. Such a waste. Lance followed the beach and grabbed a crab every now and then. They had to be bigger after all.

That's when he heard it. The sound of meows. A cat? Well sure it was, but why was there a cat on the beach. Lance walked towards the sound until he reached the more abandoned part of the beach. Nobody came here, so why would a cat. He peeked over a rock, to reveal a cat sitting by the water, meowing. It looked like it was meowing after something or someone. However, there was nobody around. It took the cat a moment to notice Lance, but once it did, it started meowing at him.

"Hey, there gatita..." Lance put the bucket down and sat down on his knees. The cat did not seem shy at all. It came up and sniffed the hand Lance had reached out.

"What are you doing out here alone, girl?" Lance started petting the cat. It seemed friendly, not to mention very clean. It was either owned or had not been out for long. Which again lead Lance to be confused as to why it was there. Lance stood up and walked over to the white box. Inside the box was a tiny blanket, and an empty bowl. Lance frowned slightly. Someone must have left the cat out, or abandoned it. Lance was quickly pulled out of his thoughts when the cat started walking around his feet, begging for attention. He smiled as he started petting it. Before long, Lance found himself playing tag with the cat around the white box. He was having fun. Till the cat's attention suddenly turned back to the water.

"What's up, gatita?" Lance said as he walked up behind the cat, and looked in the direction the cat was meowing in. If Lance had been too slow, he might not have noticed the splash of something or someone sinking into the water. That was all he saw though. He stared in the direction for a while, but whatever went down was clearly not coming back up. Lance finally looked down at the cat. The cat did not seem to mind sitting by the water and wait. Lance frowned slightly confused as he went back to the white box. In the end, he finished collecting crabs and went back home. He had tried to take the cat with him, but the cat had absolutely refused to be taken away from the spot at the beach. So he had promised to bring it food whenever he could. Not that the cat would understand. But it was worth promising. His mother was happy to receive the crabs and went to war with the dinner straight away. Meanwhile, Lance spent time with his siblings.

Lance cut down on his own food intake, in order to bring the cat at least a little bit of food every day. He probably should not have, but he liked animals. He was not allowed to have any pets, but there were a few strays around he could pet and play with. The cat seemed thankful for the food, however, it never moved. It was always by the same spot, meowing out towards the water as if it was calling for something or someone. It did not take long for Lance to figure out where he could hide, just to catch a glimpse of whatever it was the cat seemed to attached to. Lance was more confused than ever the first few times. Despite hiding well, and making sure to look as if he had left, nothing had come to greet the cat. It had just been the cat, alone, by the water. Meowing to whatever was out there.

After two weeks of bringing the cat food every day, the cat had become happy to see Lance daily. It had definitely grown day by day. It seemed healthy despite living on the beach, in a box. Lance grabbed a little bag of meat from the kitchen and made his way to the beach to feed the cat again. Something seemed different this time though. Usually, the cat would meow but today it was silent. Lance got slightly worried as he hurried towards the abandoned part of the beach. However, getting closer he heard splashes. Could the cat have drowned? or was it currently drowning? He stepped closer and peeked over a rock. His eyes went wide with confusion. There was a boy in the water. Or was it a boy? It was definitely not a boy, though it looked like one. It had a tail. Not a tail like a cat or a dog would have. He had a tail for legs. He had no legs. His tail was bright red, with fading spots. Black hair. Lance wanted to see more, but he was scared to move at this point. It did not seem like the boy had noticed him at all. Not yet at least.

"Stay... Staaaay" the boy repeated to the cat. The cat, however, did not listen and continued attempting to follow the boy into the water. The 4th time of bringing the cat back to shore, the black haired boy sighed. He then laid down onto his stomach with his head resting on folded arms. The cat sat down in front of him with a meow. The black haired boy looked more defeated than anything at this point. It brought a smile onto Lance's lips. It looked kind of cute.

"You are such a strange creature. You can't swim, so why do you keep trying?! Now you're all wet and weird looking" The black haired boy sighed.

"Miowww... Miow Miow!" The cat responded.

"I can't understand what you're saying" the boy then sat up.

His red tail was now in view. Lance's eyes went wide in shock. A mermaid? merman? Something along those lines. But there was no way. His older sister Veronica had told him that mermaids were made up for fantasy purposes. This was exciting for Lance though. He was seeing a real live mermaid, and it was interacting with the cat he had been feeding for weeks now. Every single aspect of the place suddenly made sense. How the cat never left the beach. The thing that never came up from the water back when Lance had first found the cat. The mermaid had watched him and the cat play. The thought of that made his cheeks turn slightly pink. A mermaid had watched him. Perhaps even watched him every day? Lance smiled turned wider as the thought. He rubbed his neck gently before turning his attention to the mermaid and the cat again. He made sure to be as quiet as possible. He did not want to scare the mermaid away, which was clearly very easy. The mermaid had not shown himself a single time for the last two weeks. Lance considered himself lucky to finally see what had been going on at the beach. He continued to secretly watch the mermaid.

The black haired boy stared at the cat before raising an eyebrow. The cat lifted its paws in the air as if it wanted to be picked up. The boy did nothing though. It was clear that the boy had no idea how to interact with the cat. But it was somewhat cute to watch.

"What..." the boy questioned.

"Meow" the cat answered. The boy shook his head confused before turning his attention to the white box, which the cat called home. He slowly dragged himself over to it and peeked inside.

"Funny how you can still fit in this thing..." the boy frowned before sitting up straight again.

"Miooooow" the cat followed the boy to the box. The boy gently started petting the cat. He must have stayed with the cat for a long time because he did not seem surprised at all at the sudden pouring sound coming from the cat.

"How big do you intend on growing? You'll become bigger than a seal if you keep this up" the boy chuckled slightly. The cat meowed happily in return. They had good communication, despite the mermaid clearly not knowing what the animal even was. The boy sighed as he watched the cat.

Looking closer Lance could conclude that it was, in fact, a mermaid. There was no way this boy had glued a tail onto himself. The tail looked attached to his human skin. Scary but fascinating. Lance studied the mermaid carefully, but he was not happy with what he saw. The boy had bruises around on his skin. Huge scratching marks. Not to mention he looked starved. All this time Lance had only focused on feeding the cat. There was really no helping it since he did not even know the mermaid was there. But despite the wounds and bruises, the mermaid was beautiful. Mesmerizing almost.

A rumbling sound came from the mermaid and the cat, which pulled Lance out of his deep thoughts. He watched as the mermaid boy wrapped both his arms over his stomach. The rumbling was his stomach? The mermaid was hungry. The cat meowed and jumped down from the boy. That's when Lance remembered. He had brought a bag of meat with him. Did mermaids even eat meat? He had intended to give it to the cat but wanted to give it to the mermaid more. Lance watched as the mermaid pulled himself off the sand and into the water.

"Now stay... I need to go get food. Stay...Stay..." the boy repeated as he slowly but steadily swam backwards. The cat did as told and stayed. It sat down in the same spot where Lance usually found it. It made sense now why the cat was usually just sitting there. It was waiting for the mermaid to return. Truth be told Lance did not want the mermaid to leave yet. But it was too late. A splash indicated that the mermaid had already dived back into the water. Lance stepped out from behind the rock and looked around on the water, hoping that the boy was not gone yet. With no luck. He was gone. The cat, however, had finally noticed Lance.

"You should have introduced me!" Lance smiled gently at the cat. The cat meowed as an answer and walked over to Lance. By now it probably knew that Lance had food. Cats were smart like that. Lance went over to the white box and placed the meat into the little bowl in the box. The cat quickly jumped into the box and started eating. He watched it for a moment before his eyes looked back out on the water. If only Lance knew what the mermaid ate, he could bring him food too. He sighed and sat down on the sand beside the box. The cat peeked up from the box with a meow.

"Yeah..." Lance answered absentminded, "He was pretty."

The strong features of the boy haunted his mind now. The red colour of his tail. The black semi-long hair. Even the many bruises on his body and face were somehow beautiful. Though Lance did wonder about them. He would have to find a way to get in contact with the mermaid. He wanted to know more, but more than anything he wanted to know the boy's name. Did mermaids even have names? Probably a very weird name. One that Lance could never pronounce. And yet. Despite smiling and talking to the cat, the boy had a sadness to him. Why? Lance pondered about that for a while.

Lance took a deep breath and looked over at the cat. The cat stared at him for a moment before meowing. He nodded and stood back up on his feet. He was determined to take care of the boy from the sea. First things first, he needed to figure out what the mermaid ate. With a smile on his face, he left the cat to its food and returned home to do some studying. Perhaps Veronica could help him figure it out? After she had her laugh and called him crazy, obviously.


	3. Chapter 3: What a Strange Being You Are

Keith opened his eyes and gazed out on the open waters again. That is until he heard a splash. He already knew what that meant. With a sigh, he sat up and waited. It did not take long before the creature came swimming towards the rock, with a happy meow.

"Again? Really?!" Keith sighed deeply and picked the creature up in his arms. He could no longer relax on his peaceful rock. Every time he tried the creature would come swimming to him. The creature knew he was there. He then had to return the wet and weird-looking creature back to the sand. Today was just another day of doing so. Keith let himself sink into the water before swimming back to the white box on the beach. He made sure to hold the creature above the water. A fragile little creature that could easily swim, but also easily drown. Returning to the white box, Keith sat the creature down on the sand. It meowed for attention, but Keith's attention was somewhere else.

Beside the white box was a little transparent bag. There were some fruits in it, along with a little note saying 'For Mermaid'. Keith was not sure how or when, but somehow, something or someone had seen him. It started 3 days ago when the first bag appeared. The creature left the bag alone as if it knew that the bags were meant for Keith. Every day there was something new in the bags, along with a note saying the same thing every time, usually rewritten multiple times.

The first day the bag contained some meat. It did not look like any fish he had ever tasted so he left that alone.

The second day was an orange and some berries. Keith knew what berries were, so he ate them right away. The orange was a harder case to solve. He had taken a whole bite off it, before realizing that only the inside tasted good.

Keith gently sat up and took the bag. Day three. The bag contained a banana, some strawberries and some blueberries. Keith looked around before slowly eating the strawberries. They were sweet. The blueberries were little sour, but they taste good anyway. The banana was the same case as the orange. Keith struggled, trying to open the banana but eventually found out how to do so. He ate it happily. He could find food for himself in the water, but he was growing desperate for food these days. A sense of sadness fell upon him as he ate the banana slowly.

He finally looked out at the water. He really missed his mother. He missed his home. Bite by bite he finished the banana and placed the peel back into the transparent bag. He studied the note a bit. Paper was also a new thing for Keith. He had never seen that in the water. He was somewhat fascinated by the note, that he nearly forgot the creature. A meow brought Keith back from his study of the note.

"Oh... Sorry, little creature..." Keith watched as the creature started sniffing yet another transparent bag. It had been hidden behind the first bag. Inside was another note, folded. He carefully took the bag. The creature meowed as it sat down beside Keith and watched.

Inside the bag was blue coloured band-aids. Keith however, had no idea what that was. He took the note and unfolded it. Paper felt so weird in Keith's hand. Like it would melt if he took it with him into the water.  
'You can use these band-aids for wounds and bruises.' was all the note said. Keith looked confused at the band-aids. He held it up towards the sun and studied it carefully.

"What..." he finally said and looked down at the creature. It meowed back up at him and lifted a paw. Keith lowered the bandaid to the creature. The creature took the band-aid into its mouth and jumped into the box. and placed it into the little bowl. Keith watched it before studying the note in his hand. He had never heard of band-aids before.

"Humans are weird" Keith frowned confused. He then looked over at the creature. He tilted his head as he watched the creature scratch at the bandaid. It looked like it was trying to do something, but Keith had no idea what. He watched the creature for a while before sighing and slowly dragging himself towards the water again.

"E-Ehm...H-Hey" A voice sounded from behind and caught Keith's attention. Shocked and kinda scared he looked in the direction of the sound. The brown-haired boy who Keith had seen bring the creature food every single day. Keith knew the feeling of being frozen with fear all too well, but he was not going to be frozen this time. This was no shark attack, but it was almost as scary. With a gasp, he quickly jumped back into the water and submerged himself under cover.

"Wait!" The boy called out, but Keith was already dived back into the water. The creature jumped out of its box and meowed after Keith. Keith dived to the bottom and hid in a small bush of seaweed as he looked up towards the surface. A disturbance in the water caused him to hide more. Then the brunette boy came into view. He was now also underwater, looking around. As far as Keith was concerned, humans did not belong under water. He had seen one or two of these fragile humans drown before.

Keith had to admire the human boy's ability to see underwater. He had always been told humans could not do that. Not to mention that the boy had taken off most of his human clothes just to be in the water. Keith found that weird. Were the clothes really not meant to be wet? It took a moment but Keith then noticed that he had been spotted. His eyes met the eyes of the human boy. The boy raised his hand slightly and waved it side to side. Keith had no clue what that meant, or what the boy was trying to do. He simply backed up and turned away, swimming further away, before hiding behind a rock. From behind the rock he watched the boy trying to follow him. He was a slow swimmer underwater it seemed, but he tried. Keith watched as the boy then stopped and swam to the surface. Keith peeked out from behind the rock to get a better view but quickly hid again as the boy came back underwater. He swam down, towards Keith. But then stopped. He clearly knew Keith was behind the rock, yet made no effort in trying to scare him out. With the minimum of movement, he tried to peek around the rock to catch a glimpse of Keith. Keith peeked out slightly too. His eyes met the boy's eyes once again, and a smile formed on the boy's lips, as he once again waved with his hand. Keith's eyes went wide, with shock but also confusion. The boy tried to get a better view of Keith, before looking around. He then swam over to the bed of seaweed. Beside it was a little underwater flower. Keith watched as the boy picked the flower before coming back, and holding it out towards him.

The boy was a mystery to Keith, yet he was also scared of him. He knew how ruthless humans could be. Slaughtering dolphins, whales, even sharks. However, this boy seemed clumsy and weird more than anything else. Keith peeked out from behind the rock a little bit more to get a better looked at the boy. True enough, the boy had let go of most of the clothes he had been wearing on land. The sudden movement of the boy scared Keith a little. He watched as the boy went back up to the surface again. Keith frowned a bit before shaking his head. If the boy really could not hold his breath as easily as Keith could, then there was no way the boy was dangerous. Keith was in his natural aliment, while the boy was not. Keith carefully followed the boy up to the surface. The boy sure looked weird to Keith. He did not have a tail, but instead had legs.

While the boy was regaining some air back into his lungs, Keith swam closer to the boy and poked the boy's legs. He watched as the boy wiggled his feet back and forth in opposite directions. It looked weird. Keith backed up a bit as the boy suddenly came back down. They were now in front of each other, rather than hiding behind rocks. The boy looked at Keith all fascinated, meanwhile Keith looked confused. Swiftly Keith circled the boy, yet could not help but to smirk as the boy tried to follow along. Keith looked the boy up and down before backing away again. He started swimming towards the beach where the little creature was surely waiting. The boy followed, slowly but surely behind Keith.

Keith stopped as the boy went back up to the surface. He slowly went up as well. He made sure to be an arm's length away from the boy, but he peeked up from the water. His eyes met the boy's eyes.

"You're... a mermaid..." the boy smiled widely. Keith studied the boys face for a moment.

"And you can't swim very well" Keith answered.

"A-Ay! I swim fine... I just don't have fins..." The boy chuckled. The sound of the chuckle kind of mesmerized Keith. It was a pretty chuckle. Cute almost. It took the boy a moment, but he soon realized he was still holding the underwater flower. He handed it to Keith. Keith simply looked at it, before slowly taking it. As soon as Keith took the flower, the boy smiled.

"Hey, I'm sorry if I scared you before... I'm the one who has left you food and the band-aids" The boy smiled.

"Bandaids?" The word caught Keith's attention, "The thing that creature is playing with?" he asked confused.

"Creature? You mean the cat?" the boy questioned.

"Cat? What is a cat?!" Keith asked, now more confused than ever.

The two stared at each other for what seemed like forever, before the boy started to chuckle again. Keith did not understand what the boy found so funny. But he cracked a small smile anyway. The boy did not seem as dangerous as Keith before had thought. Keith watched and followed slowly as the boy started swimming back towards the beach. The cat had now started meowing out for them. The boy stood up when he was close enough to the beach and looked back at Keith. The boy looked like he was expecting Keith to follow, but Keith had no intention on doing so.

The boy quickly realized that Keith was still slightly scared of him. He went up to the white box and picked up the bandaids.

"These are band-aids..." The boy held up the bandaids. He then sat down in the water and waved Keith over.

"Come here... I won't hurt you. They don't hurt" The boy reassured. Keith narrowed his eyes a little at the boy. He watched as the creature sat down beside the boy and meowed up at him. Keith did not know much about the boy, but he had no problem with the creature. He slowly swam closer to the boy, making sure to have an escape route in case anything went wrong.

When he got close enough, he watched as the boy peeled the band-aid apart and reached over towards Keith. Keith backed away slightly but tried to remain where he was. He felt the bandaid stick to the wound he had on the corner of his lip. It felt weird. The boy then pulled his hands back when the band-aid was in place. Keith reached his hand up and touched the band-aid. It covered his wound, so he could no longer touch it and make it worse.

"It will help heal the wound" the boy nodded.

"Even... under water?" Keith asked, interested.

"I-I don't actually know, but I think so" he nodded and smiled. Keith frowned a bit before looking over at the creature again.

"So... It's a ...cat?" Keith questioned.

"Oh... Yes! We humans call them cats. They are kind of independent and loves food" The boy answered before petting the cat.

"It can't swim very well either" Keith huffed. The cat meowed as a reply.

"But it keeps following you? It seems very fond of you" the boy chuckled.

"Fond of me?" Keith questioned.

"Yeah... It likes you." the boy nodded.

"...But we don't even understand each other" Keith looked completely confused about the sudden row of information.

"Well no but I can tell it likes you. Have you given it a name yet?" he asked.

"A name? Am I supposed to?" Keith answered.

"Well, yeah. It will be your pet" the boy nodded.

"Hm... Cosmo" Keith nodded and looked at the cat. The cat meowed almost as to say that it was happy with the name.

"That's a cool name... And what's your name?" The boy asked, smiling.

"...Keith" Keith answered, hesitantly.

"That's a nice name. My name is Lance" Lance smiled, happily.

"Lance? That's a weird name" Keith smirked.

"Hey now, It's a normal human name" Lance frowned, before smiling.

"Humans are weird" Keith mumbled before turning away.

"Yeah.. we kinda are" Lance pulled his knees closer to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He leaned his face on his knees as he watched Keith.

Seeing Keith up close was almost even more mesmerizing to Lance. Keith's eyes were a deep blue, almost grey colour. His hair was jet black and semi-long. Like a mullet. Weird, but cute nonetheless. He had pointy ears, and his tail was definitely not fake. It was connected straight to his skin. But what really caught Lance's attention, was the mark Keith had on his right cheek. It was a deep red colour, almost black, and it almost looked like dried blood. The mark went almost all the way to his nose. A little longer and it might as well have gone to his eye. Not to mention the many rifts and bruises he had all over his skin. It looked to Lance as if Keith had been to war with a knife. But he refused to ask about the wounds yet. They had only just met, and he did not want to scare Keith away yet. Keith looked over at Lance after a while of silence.

"What?" Keith asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Nothing... Just... Looking at you. You're really beautiful" Lance smiled gently. Keith quickly looked away. Nobody had ever called him beautiful. Not to mention how Keith felt far from beautiful in any way. His body was wounded. Scared. Broken. A sadness fell over Keith's face. Lance noticed the sadness. He had been watching the mermaid for some days and noticed the same sadness repeating. He wanted to ask. But choose not to.

"Hey... What do you like to eat?" Lance asked instead.

"Eat? Fruits?" Keith looked over at Lance, intrigued by the mention of food.

"Fruits? Like... Berries? You liked the strawberries?" Lance unwrapped his arms from his knees and went back to a normal sitting position.

"Yeah... Berries" Keith nodded. God how hungry he was. Too scared to move out on the more open waters, Keith had very little luck with finding food.

Keith watched as Lance got up on his feet again and walked over to his clothes. He pulled his t-shirt back on and started looking through a little leather bag. He pulled out another transparent bag, which he brought back over to Keith. In the bag were some more strawberries. He handed the bag to Keith, and with great care, Keith slowly took the bag. His eyes looked up at Lance who smiled.

"I'll bring you more food if you want" Lance suggested. Keith slowly nodded and opened the bag. He pulled out a strawberry and started eating it. Keith had no choice but to trust Lance at this point. He seemed kind enough, compared to other humans Keith had seen before. Besides, right now, Lance was the only source of food Keith had. So even if it was just for a while, he needed food to regain some energy.

"Great! Then it's a deal!" Lance said, happily.

"Yeah... A deal..." Keith repeated the words.


End file.
